Articles

Women of Jazz, New Releases, and a look back at Azimuth

By Bob Osborne

This programme is all about female vocalists with some of the years best new releases plus there's a look back at the music of Azimuth featuring the great Norma Winstone. Featured new albums are from Sonia Johnson, Heather Bambrick and Brenda Earle Stokes. Playlist Sonia Johnson “Storm" from Chrysalis (Self Released) 00:00 Brenda Earle Stokes “The Consequences of Falling" from Solo Sessions Vol. 1 (Allsheeneeds Music) 05:42 Azimuth “Azimuth" from Azimuth (ECM) 11:31 Heather Bambrick “You've Got ...

Norma Winstone: Descansado - Songs For Films

By John Ephland

Norma Winstone has had her current trio since 2001, long enough to have released five albums (four for ECM). Descansado, a celebration of cinema through the language of music, is that fourth CD, and it's a winner from start to finish. The album's title derives from a Armando Trovajoli composition, used in Italian director Vittorio De Sica's 1963 film Ieri, Oggi, Domani (Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow). The group's rendition of this touching number is typically sublime. With bass clarinetist/soprano ...

London Jazz Festival 2016

By Duncan Heining

The London Jazz Festival, now in its 24th year, straddles the capital--its noble aim, as ever, is the provision of musical succour for the diverse tastes that make up the larger British jazz audience. You want mainstream, you'll find it. Looking for fusion, then look no further. Free jazz, bebop, blues? Step this way. Postjazz? Postjazz? I'm sure I saw it here somewhere. The first Sunday caught James Blood Ulmer at the East End's Rich Mix. Backed by ...

Norma Winstone: Dance Without Answer

By John Kelman

If there's a single accomplishment that can be attributed to ECM Records--though there are, of course, many in its 45-year history--it's that it welcomes unusual instrumentation with open arms, affording such collaborations the opportunity to grow, to evolve, and build a new language. From the pan-cultural CODONA Trilogy (2009), which collected the three genre-defying recordings made in the late '70s/early '80s by Collin Walcott, Don Cherry and Nana Vasconcelos, to Jon Balke's Siwan (2009), which collected, amongst others, Fourth World ...

Norma Winstone: Edge of Time

By Roger Farbey

This reissue features many of the most significant musicians in British jazz of the late 1960s and 70s. It also benefits from imaginative compositions and arrangements by John Taylor, John Warren, Neil Ardley, John Surman and Norma Winstone herself. The opening, title track written by Taylor and Winstone is a memorable exploration of both arrangement and improvisation in equal measure. A tentative beginning gives way to a dynamic brass arrangement accompanying a lyrical song, Winstone's voice ...

Norma Winstone: Stories Yet to Tell

By John Kelman

Distances (ECM, 2008) wasn't British vocalist Norma Winstone's first release to feature her current trio of reedman Klaus Gesing and pianist Glauco Venier, but with ECM Records' greater exposure and reputation, it was the first to reach a broader international audience. With Distance a largely lyric-based alternative to Winstone's always lovely wordless vocals on Chamber Music (Universal, 2004), Stories Yet to Tell is a worthy successor to both, with even greater emphasis on Winstone the lyricist--she contributes to eight of ...

Norma Winstone: Distances

By C. Michael Bailey

Practice brings one closer to perfection. British singer Norma Winstone has enjoyed a very prolific 35-plus year career that has been divided among a number of recording labels. Her recordings with John Taylor and Kenny Wheeler in the form of the group Azimuth brought her international exposure and recognition. These formats were the unusual combination of voice, piano, and either horn or reeds. This spare instrumentation and arrangement qualifies what Winstone does as chamber jazz.

On her first ECM release ...